Toon lose unbeaten record – Man City v Newcastle report / highlights
Posted on November 19th, 2011 | 24 Comments |
First Half
We got off to a promising start, attacking from the off up the right. Sammy put in a poor cross through and it eventually went out for a goal kick off Danny Simpson.
City spent a few minutes passing the ball amongst their back four, looking for an attack route and had their first meaningful attack after 4 and a half minutes when Milner’s shot was blocked by Guthrie. Not long after that, Richards got a good cross in and Steven Taylor had to clear the ball. Taylor was again called into action shortly afterwards to block a shot from Milner.
City had a lot of possession in the first 15 minutes but so far we’d managed to deal with them and even started to make some forward runs ourselves with Sammy dribbling nicely up the right only to finish off with a poor cross.
City came back on the counter attack and it took a block by Taylor and a nice interception by Colo to keep things intact, although on 20 minutes we were lucky when Aguero was in a good position to get a shot off and put it over the bar.
Ba picked up a knock jumping for a ball; either it was caused by Lescott’s boot on his foot as he jumped or he landed badly. He limped around for a few minutes afterwards by eventually seemed to run it off.
Simpson laid off a good ball to Sammy and I have no idea whether he was crossing or shooting but it was easy enough for the keeper to collect.
On 27 minutes we had a dodgy moment when Clichy and Balotelli contrived to make life difficult for us in the box and Colo had to frantically clear, almost taking it out of Krul’s hands. That was closely followed by a De Jong shot that was blocked by Steven Taylor. Shortly afterwards Milner set up Balotelli for a powerful header and it took Tim Krul’s fingertips to push it over the crossbar.
After that veritable onslaught though, we had possibly our best chance of the game so far as Benny showed some of the skills we know he has. Him and Ba worked well together: Ba passed to Benny who executed a nice reverse back to Ba whose shot produced a good save from Hart.
And we continued to attack. First of all Ryan Taylor’s free kick bounced off the wall and then Sammy and Simpson worked the ball up the right and won a corner. Cabaye’s corner was good enough to find the head of Demba Ba but he put it beyond the far post.
We’d been holding up reasonably well in defence but a City attack led to Ryan Taylor handling the ball in the area at around 40 minutes. It was accidental, although his arms were outstretched and the referee pointed straight to the spot. Balotelli took an arrogant penalty, pausing in his run and then casually slotting it into the net. 1-0.
This bucked City up a bit and they started working up more attacks, which led to more bad news for us. Ryan Taylor found himself with two left feet and couldn’t control the ball in the box under pressure so Micah Richards took it calmly off and hammered the shot past Krul. 2-0.
There was just time for Sammy to try a hopeful shot at the other end – easily saved by Hart – and it was half time.
Second Half
Well, we had to attack this half and that’s what we tried to do. We had a corner and a free kick but nothing came of them and we even had a decent spell of possession around the City box for a while but couldn’t make much of it.
City were well into their stride now and the 2 goal lead seemed to relax them to the benefit of their overall game. They look very relaxed on the ball – casual even – but their passes are often quick and inch perfect and they can break ahead with speed when they need to. One such situation saw Toure charge into the box trying to get away from Colocinni but Colo was up to the task and managed to clear the ball away.
We had a bit of luck at one point when a mad scramble in our box looked sure to be another City goal but Steven Taylor managed to clear it away from right in front of goal.
On 60 minutes, Benny once again displayed great skill to thread himself and the ball between two defenders and he got in a great shot. I was already jumping in celebration but the ball bounced off the post and allowed Hart to clear it away for a corner. Cabaye’s corner was decent though and Colo thumped it through about 75 players where it eventually went wide of the post.
Aguero had a good chance for City as he ran through our defence and looked a cert to score, but Tim Krul managed to get the ball off him.
We were still doing some attacking though. A Simpson cross was good for Ba but he couldn’t seem to get a decent header on it and then Guthrie passed the ball to Colo on the edge of the City box and continued to run around the outside of the City defence to the left. Colo passed the ball back to Guthrie but he just couldn’t squeeze it past Hart’s gloves to its target just inside the far post. That was another really good chance for us.
On 68 minutes City took off Balotelli, which was good news, and brought on David Silva, which wasn’t. Depth is something City certainly aren’t lacking.
Alas we fell foul of the penalty spot again after Ben Arfa was adjudged to have brought down Micah Richards in the area. Aguero stepped up to make it 3-0.
On 73 minutes Adam Johnson came on for Aguero and Lovenkrands came on for Ben Arfa and a few minutes later Gosling came on for Sammy.
City just seemed to be soaking up any pressure we applied and pushing forward when they had the chance. They had a few corners that came to nothing and we tried to press forward when we could but we were looking tired now.
Barry came on for Toure and Perch came on for Cabaye and it just looked like City were happy to play keepies and run down time. However, during one of our forays forwards, Ba got into a decent position in front of goal, forcing Hart the scramble the ball away from Ba’s feet. Gosling was arriving in the area at speed though and picked up the loose ball and scored. 3-1.
Johnson crossed a dangerous ball into our box looking for Silva but we managed to clear it and the game ended 3-1 to City.
Assessment
Well, considering what we were up against I thought we defended reasonably well. We only gave away one goal in open play and matched that by scoring against them. We were undone by the two penalties really, although I can’t argue with either or them. Perhaps the second was a bit soft but penalties are given for that sort of thing these days and the players know that.
I still think City could have gone up another gear if they’d wanted to. Nobody has taken any points at Eastlands this season and I’d be surprised if anyone does. There is a huge financial gulf between the two teams and we simply can’t compete with that, but I think we acquitted ourselves as well as could be realistically expected in the circumstances.
Man of the match from the Toon side was Steven Taylor for me today.
Thankfully it’s only Manchester United next week!
Match highlights
Highlights of the game.
As usual, I shall endeavour to update these highlights with better ones when they become available.
Post match interviews
Post match interview with Alan Pardew.
Post match interview with Roberto Mancini.
NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen
I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10).
Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.
Gosling cost me a full 3 points in the predictor fookin PRICK !!